October at the cottage

An article from the rubric "Calendar of works of gardener, gardener, florist."

The summer season comes to an end, the garden is empty, almost the entire harvest has been removed. It would seem that you can already relax and unwind, but in fact there is still a lot of work in the garden and in the garden. In October, all these works are mainly related to the preparation of the garden plot for the winter.

This will be discussed in this article. First, let's talk about seasonal gardening.

    October. Seasonal work of gardeners

Your garden: work of the month

October - the time of harvesting apples and pears of late varieties. Do it in the first decade and put them in storage. To keep fruits longer, they should be cooled as soon as possible after removal and stored at a temperature of 0 - plus 5 degrees.

Renet Simirenko - at plus 2-3 degrees. You can save a few months at a temperature of minus 1 to minus 0.5.

If you removed the pears too early, store at a temperature of 2-4 degrees, otherwise they will not ripen.

Before storing the fruits of each class must be sorted out, selected damaged by diseases and pests or mechanical injuries. The larger the fruit, the earlier it matures, it breathes harder, it releases more substances that affect the surrounding fruits, accelerating their ripening.

Therefore, it is better to sort the fruits of one variety before storage by size: large, medium, small. Place them in different containers and pick them up from the cellar at different times.

Apples can be stacked in cardboard boxes, lattice boxes, thin translucent polyethylene bags (1-1.5 kg each), just on the shelves.

    In October, it's time to clean up the garden.

Around the young fruit trees it is necessary to dig up the soil for 15–20 cm with forks. Later, on frozen soil, knead the tree trunks with sawdust or compost, preferably with peat.

Dig pits and fertilize them for spring planting of seedlings.

To make the trees survive the winter better, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are introduced into the near-trunk circle (if they have not been introduced earlier) and are buried in the ground with a hoe.

In autumn, the tree trunks in the garden should be whitened.

Clean the trunks of dead bark and then whiten. Young trees (up to 5 years) is better to whiten with a solution of chalk. Adults - lime with clay (2.5 kg per 10 liters of water) or garden sunscreen.

The garden before winter must be cleared of weeds, plant debris, sick and dried shoots of trees and shrubs.

    Continue landing

In October, it is time to plant apples, pears and other fruit. Landing is necessary no later than 15 days before frost is stable.

To trim the aboveground part in the autumn can only be at the berries. You will prune the trees in spring, but do not forget to do this so that the seedlings will take root well. Crop to restore the balance between the injured roots when digging and the above-ground part.

When the leaves begin to turn yellow in the trees, spray the crowns with a solution of urea (500 g per 10 liters of water) to destroy the scab of scab and other fungal diseases.

Falling leaves does not mean that all the tissues and organs of the plant have entered a resting phase. At positive temperatures, flower buds continue to develop, roots grow.

    Take care of soil improvement

In the autumn you need to take care of the land. Well, if you managed to make manure. Organic improves soil, replenishes it with humus, makes soil looser, air-and permeable.

If there is no manure or compost, chop the fresh stalks of beans, beans, carrot tops, nettles with a shovel and dig the soil on a bayonet of a shovel. This is also a useful organic fertilizer.

Stems and flowers of marigolds, calendula, do not throw in the fire. Crushed and embedded in the soil, they clean it from pests and fungal diseases. Tansy, yarrow, chamomile are also useful for autumn soil fertilization.

    Work on trimming shrubs

In October, currant bushes and gooseberries are cut. Free the red and black currants, gooseberries from old and thickening branches. It is necessary that the branches were free, then the harvest will delight you.

Gooseberry bush is required pruning.

Do not leave stumps when cutting branches. Pests and pathogens overwinter in them. Non-concentrated red currant bushes bear fruit for 15–20 years, black for 5–6 years, gooseberries for 5–8 years. After that, it is advisable to completely update the plantations.

Strawberries give good yields of berries for two years. In the third year, the yield is greatly reduced. After the third full harvest plantation should be eliminated.

By this time, it accumulates diseases and becomes overgrown with malicious weeds:

• convolvulus
• wheat grass
• chaff
• dandelion

It is easier to plant a new strawberry than weed it out.

Dig the soil under shrubs finely, without breaking lumps, so that autumn moisture, snowmelt water and snow get better absorbed. And some of the pests will die from frost.

New planting of shrubs, trees, strawberries gurgle with humus, compost or peat. This will replace your digging. It will be enough easy loosening. If you mulch with straw, hay or sawdust, they must first be treated with urea or ammonium nitrate at 20-25 g per square meter. m

At first, pour the mulch 4-5 cm from the trunk, and when the frost begins, cover the tree trunk completely.

In October, you can sow seeds:

• apple trees
• pears
• stone fruit cultures
• Japanese quince
• viburnum and others

During the winter, they will undergo a natural stratification and will sprout in spring.

   Seasonal work gardeners in October

Your garden: work of the month.

Things still abound.

We plant winter garlic.

In advance, you need to think about the areas for planting onion sets, about the beds for podzimnyh crops. Do not forget to prepare garden soil, humus, compost for future seedlings and spring transplants of indoor plants.

Of course, you can do with purchased soil mixtures, but still it is better when tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and in the seedling period, and later in the garden will develop in a similar soil mixture.

Reserve the soil and need for podzimnyh crops. If you remove it in the barn, it will not freeze by the time you need to fill the seeds of carrots, parsley, etc. in the sowing grooves.

    What we will sow in October

So, the first in the series of October works are siderats. Spring siderata no longer makes sense to sow, but winter crops (rye, winter wheat) - it's about time. Before the onset of frost, they will have time to ascend, grow and, therefore, a good winter.

It is important not to overdo it with watering. If the soil in the garden is dry, before sowing, pour it over prepared grooves (in several stages). This will be enough for the seeds of cereals to sprout and grow actively.

If the beds are no longer watered, the green manure roots in search of moisture will actively develop inland, loosening the soil at a depth inaccessible to the garden shovel. In addition, deep roots tighten nutrients from the lower layers of the soil, which is also very important to increase its fertility.

Garden planted with sideratami.

Summer residents, whose winterside siderats in the garden are already growing, are asked when it is better to dig them up - in the spring or in the autumn?

In autumn, under digging, you can bring in not completely rotted manure, compost: before spring in the soil they will have time to turn into good organic matter.

Fully prepared humus, it is better to leave compost for mulching of garlic and onion beds (after planting), podzimnyh crops, which will be carried out no earlier than November. We choose a place for the wintering of the winter in the sun, where thawed and spring waters will not stagnate.

Fertilizer for garden beds.

Under digging we bring in a bucket of good compost or humus and according to Art. spoon superphosphate and potassium sulfate. On a well leveled bed 15 cm apart, we make sowing furrows. (The soil for filling seeds is prepared and stored under the roof.)

We will sow after the temperature steadily drops to a small minus. If you sow in late October - early November, the seeds of cold-resistant crops (carrots, parsley, dill) can rise and die after the onset of frost.

In the second decade of October we plant winter garlic

Small onion sets with a diameter of not more than 1 cm are planted a week later with garlic. And garlic, and onions before frost should only take root.

If frost is predicted to occur soon after planting, the beds will be thrown with humus or compost: the soil will not immediately cool down under the mulch layer and the onions will have time to root.

If October is warm, it is better to squash the garlic and onion beds after cooling, so that the soil during warming periods does not keep the garlic warm, the onions remain at rest until spring.

    There is no waste in the garden, there is organic

We will find time to tidy up the compost pile. Its upper layer will be removed and folded "to reach a flowing condition." There we will add post-harvest vegetable residues.

It is pleasant and convenient to work with such a "compost pit".

At the bottom of the heap, compost, as a rule, is ready for autumn (if, of course, we did not forget to sandwich plant residues with earth, water them) and they can warm up for the winter a zone of garden roots, perennial ornamental and garden plants.

In the spring of such shelter there is no need to clean up. Compost, performing the role of insulation in the winter, begins to work as a soil improver. Sorting the compost, do not forget to choose from him Khrushchev. They can simply be put in some kind of pot: birds will have something to eat.

    We take a shovel

Digging or not digging beds in the fall and when is it better to do?

If the soil on the site, constantly replenished with organic matter, has become structural and is not strongly compacted over the season, it can be simply shallowly processed with a flat cutter.

Heavy, compacted as a result of frequent watering, without digging, poorly absorb rain and spring moisture, the snow from them is blown away, not lingering. Both are bad for soil health. We dig up the beds that have condensed during the season, having previously made compost, humus, superphosphate, and potassium sulfate.

If the site was molested with wireworms, shovels, and crinkles, it is recommended to dig up the soil as late as possible in order to turn it to the surface and freeze the pests.

The hardest work in the garden in October.

Light soils (sandy, sandy) in the autumn is better not to disturb: do not dig, do not make fertilizer. Being dug up, such soil is strongly exposed to erosion: the already poor fertile layer is torn down by the wind, washed off by rains, by melt waters.

Fertilizers applied in autumn to light soils are washed out into lower horizons inaccessible to plant roots. On such soils, beds of garlic, onions, perennial vegetables (sorrel, asparagus, onions for greens, rhubarb) must be mulched in the winter, otherwise you can’t wait until after the snowless winter.

And the thicker the insulating layer, the greater the chances of successful wintering of plants.

In stationary greenhouses, in which the same vegetables are continuously grown, it makes sense to replace the top layer of soil. The soil from the greenhouse is laid in a pile, interbedded with fallen leaves, mowed lawn grass, manure (if any).

Next season, it is important not to let the stack dry out. Two years later, the rested soil can be returned to the greenhouse, sending the next layer removed in the greenhouse for rehabilitation.

    We continue harvesting.

In October, every day may be the last day of stay in the beds of root crops, cabbage. Do not allow freezing of vegetables. Carrots, being in the ground, may not suffer from not freezing frosts, and the beets with its root crops “on display” will be damaged and will not be stored.

You can not really rush to dig a daikon: let it gain weight and juiciness. It can be covered with nonwovens on arcs.

Do not rush to clean the parsnip: it can even spend the winter in the garden. It is believed that parsnip in the cold weather becomes tastier.

Later you can dig up the parsley root, leaving a few plants in the garden for spring greenery. The leaves of parsley, remaining to winter in the garden, do not cut, otherwise the plants can not overwinter. Several parsley roots can be immediately transplanted into a pot to put on the kitchen window sill.

In October, it's time to clean the cabbage.

Light freezing makes cabbage sweeter. But if we are going to provide ourselves for the winter not only with saucy, but also with fresh cabbage, it is better to remove it before the onset of freezing weather.

If, nevertheless, the cabbage freezes, let it thaw at the vine and then cut.

Cabbage intended for storage, or pulled out with a root, or leave a long stump. When stripping the head, 3-4 leaves are not touched.

Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi will safely survive the first weak frost without compromising the quality of the crop. Broccoli regularly cut off small heads that form on the side shoots. The plants themselves will be removed from the garden after frost.

After harvesting white cabbage heads, Brussels coaches, broccoli heads and colored stalks and stumps remaining on the beds, we pull out the roots, chop them and put them into compost. Until spring in the land they should not be left.

If the Brussels sprout or cauliflower does not have time to form a full harvest, the plants are dug up with the roots and “transplanted” into wet sand or soil in the greenhouse or basement.

If there is no basement, cabbage can be grown in a greenhouse, covered with film, straw mats or old blankets. The heads of cabbage will grow up due to the nutrients accumulated in the stump, leaves.

We don’t rush to dig a leek, but we leave a place in the basement where we can plant the plants. In the meantime, once again we dock leek stalks so that they are bleached.

Additionally, you need to pour the land to the stalks of stalked celery. Many summer residents, to protect the stems from pollution, bleach celery, wrapping the petioles with thick, light-impermeable paper.

Celery stalk.

In bleached petioles, the amount of essential oils decreases, and therefore the bitterness decreases, they become more delicious. It’s not possible to keep juicy stalks for a long time after harvesting, so we leave celery in the garden for as long as possible.

Before the onset of cold weather, it can be covered with non-woven material or film on the arches. Of course, we can’t save him this way all winter, but we can extend the consumption of useful stems.

Although after cutting, it is possible to keep celery stalks fresh for several weeks. Cut the upper part (where the leaves are) from the stalks, wash them well, dry them so that there are no water droplets on the stalks, wrap them in a paper towel, pack them in a plastic bag and put them in the refrigerator.

We take the last opportunity to prepare for the future as much as possible of green parsley, dill: dry, freeze or salt. Dried herbs can be ground with a blender and added to soups, main dishes, salads.

Greens, giving taste and aroma, will not be "confused" in the teeth. Namoem spinach leaves, dry, pack and put in the fridge to at least in October-November to cook green soup-puree.

We will try to dig up the potatoes planted in the second half of the summer on a fine day in order to immediately air out and disperse in the shed to dry.

In October, do not pull with the final harvest of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants. Stored in warm weather, they are kept longer. Eggplant, put in a plastic bag, it is better to store in the refrigerator. And so that the fruits do not sweat, first they are cooled and only after that they are placed in a bag.

Having washed, dried and packed in a plastic bag, you can store the radish harvested in October for a long time.

We will try to preserve as much as possible: the last vitamins of autumn, so that they will last until spring.

    October works of florist

On what works are expected florists in October, read on the next page.

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